BEIJING, Feb. 6 -- 72.7 percent of Chinese said they are happy. 73.7 percent said they are optimistic about their future life while over 50 percent of those who were unhappy think the main reason for their unhappiness was poverty.

    These are results of a survey conducted in 2005 on households from 8 large and medium sized cities, 7 towns and 8 rural areas, according to a social blue book published by Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

    The survey also shows that a sense of happiness has decreased a bit compared with the 77 percent in 2004. The unhappiness ratio has increased to 10.9 percent from 8.8 percent in 2004. If one uses 5 as the highest scores, the happiness score in 2005 was 3.72, a bit decrease from the previous year's 3.79. The town people are happier than rural and city people with scores of 3.77, 3.72 and 3.68 respectively.

    Another interesting result is that among those whose monthly income is less than 800 yuan or 100 US dollars and annual income less than 3000 yuan in town and rural areas, their happiness ratios are 56.4 percent and 67 percent respectively, despite low income. But among those who live in towns and monthly income reached more than 5000 yuan and those who live in rural areas, and annual income reached 5000 to 10 thousand yuan,6.4 percent and 13 percent of them feel they are unhappy, despite relatively high income.

    This shows that wealth is not the only decisive factor for happiness.

    More than half of unhappy people think poverty should be blamed

    Among those who are unhappy, 54.6 percent from towns and 66.4 percent from rural areas think poverty is an important factor for their unhappiness. Comparatively speaking, town people feel unhappy because of their poor housing conditions, unemployment of certain family members and unsatisfied job conditions. Meanwhile rural people feel unhappy because of their poor health, their children's problems and lack of skills.

    The survey also shows family harmony, good health and sufficient financial income are the three major source of happiness.

    In towns, 52.9 percent and 44.8 percent of those who feel happy hold that family harmony and family members' good health are the main source of happiness. Meanwhile, 60.3 percent and 58.2 percent of those who feel happy in rural areas agree that family harmony and good health are the main source of happiness.

    Less than 30 percent of those who feel happy say they think poverty is a factor for unhappiness. Town people feel happy because they have good friends, hobby and a good job while rural people feel happy because they have pious and promising children.

    73.7 percent of people are optimistic about their future

    In 2005, 73.7 percent of people were optimistic about their future and thought their life would be very good or even better. Only 3.5 percent of people felt pessimistic while in 2004,7 percent of people felt pessimistic.

    If the highest score for optimism is five, in 2005, people's optimism score was 3.88, the highest over the past four years which were 3.8 in 2002, 3.82 in 2003 and 3.8 in 2004 respectively.

    About New Year's plan, the common will of the rural and urban people are to seek progress through work. 46.1 percent of town people hope they will change for a better job or be promoted at their current job in 2006. 26.8 percent of rural people plan to go out of their village to work and 23.1 percent of people express that they will work harder in 2006.

    Judging from their new year plan, one can see the economic differences between rural and urban people. While 25.1 percent of town people plan to travel in 2006, only 5.3 percent of rural people plan to do that. While 10.1 percent and 18.1 percent of urban people want to buy a car and an apartment in 2006, only 3.2 percent and 11.8 percent of rural people want to do the same. 8.1 percent of town people want to buy insurance while only 5 percent of rural people want to buy it.

    (Source: People's Daily Online)